Several Internet Protocol (IP) header compression techniques exist and are deployed in today's networks. Examples of those techniques include the IP Header Compression (IPHC) published as Network Working Group's Request for Comments (RFC) 2509, the Robust Header Compression (ROHC) published as RFC 4995, and the EthHC™ published by Effnet AB. The first two address L3/L4 header compression, whereas the third one addresses Ethernet (L2) header compression. Both IPHC and ROHC aim at being as generic or exhaustive as possible while claiming a potentially high compression rate. As a result, they require high complexity, high level of configurability and adaptation, and feedback channel to address unreliable wireless channels. Also, the functionality addresses both flow detection/identification and compression. Finally, a major drawback is the need to concatenate two independent header compression mechanisms in order to compress both the L3/L4 and L2 headers.
To address these, and other shortcomings of existing header compression techniques, the inventors hereof have developed a comprehensive L2/L3/L4 compression mechanism with the goal to increase or maximize efficiency and to reduce or minimize complexity when implemented on a high rate wireless backhaul link.